This invention relates generally to wireless two-way communications and more particularly to communications between vehicles and between occupants of vehicles.
Wireless communications are known. Wireless systems making use of frequency reuse, such as cellular systems, are virtually ubiquitous and dispatch services are also well integrated and dispersed. Both are key components of modern infrastructure.
Now, at least one group seeks to define a new wireless communications service to specifically facilitate terrestrial-based vehicular journeys (particularly for automobiles and trucks). Presently known as dedicated short range communications (DSRC), the Federal Communications Commission in the United States has presently at least tentatively identified spectrum that can be used for such journey-related information. The American Society for Testing and Materials presently acts as a standards development group to define such a communications service to support provision of journey-related information to vehicular users. At present, the over-the-air interface has not been defined (though at least two wireless local area network systemsxe2x80x94the I.E.E.E.#802.11A and Motorola""s control channel based Freespace systemxe2x80x94have been proposed and are being considered). This group has, however, made considerable progress towards defining the services that the service will support. In particular, such a journey-related information provision system should ultimately provide roadside information and corresponding vehicle-to-vehicle communications to support both public safety and private requirements (depending upon the application transmission range will likely vary from fifteen meters to three hundred meters).
As an example of public safety services, such a roadside information system can be expected to support:
Traffic count (for example, determining the number of vehicles that traverse an intersection over a given period of time);
Traffic movement information;
Toll collection;
In-vehicle signage (for example, presenting xe2x80x9cstopxe2x80x9d information within the cockpit of a vehicle as the vehicle approaches a stop sign);
Road condition warnings;
intersection collision avoidance (including highway/rail intersections);
Vehicle-to-vehicle information (for example, stopped vehicle or slowing vehicle information);
Rollover warnings;
Low bridge warnings;
Border clearance facilitation;
On-board safety data transfer;
Driver""s daily log;
Vehicle safety inspection information; and
Emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption.
Examples of private requirements include;
Premises access control;
Gasoline payment;
Drive-through retail payment;
Parking lot payments;
Various vehicular related data transfers (for example, diagnostic data, repair service record data, vehicular computer program updates, map information, and user content such as music);
Rental car processing;
Fleet management;
Locomotive fuel monitoring; and
Locomotive data transfer.
These capabilities and services hold promise for safer, more convenient, and more pleasurable terrestrial based journeys. Notwithstanding such promise, however, certain needs and opportunities remain unmet and unaddressed by either such systems as proposed above or as are otherwise available in the prior art. For example, vehicle to vehicle communications are only modestly considered. In general, despite the presence of a high number of vehicles on most roads at any given place or time, most vehicles (and the occupants of such vehicles) remain an island unto themselves. Little opportunity exists for entertaining and/or helpful communications between vehicles.
In years past, citizens band radio offered some capacity in this regard. For a variety of reasons, however, including a general inability to obtain relevant information without resorting to time-consuming gregarious communications, such radios see only limited use in present time.
A need therefore exists for a way to better facilitate vehicle to vehicle communications. Preferably, communications should generally remain relevant and pertinent to either the vehicle and/or occupants thereof. Conversely, distracting irrelevant information should preferably be minimized. Also preferably, such communications should favorably leverage the information opportunities represented by the vast numbers of vehicles and vehicle occupants that are on the roads at any given time. Also, with digital short range communications likely to be adopted for use in a considerable number of vehicles, a solution that is at least compatible with such communications and which preferably leverages the presence of such communications capability would aid in ensuring a cost-efficient and more widely available solution.